Davenport Comes From 18th To Claim Historic Victory In 45th World 100 at Eldora Speedway
Becomes Fourth Driver to Sweep Dirt Late Model Dream and World 100; Takes Home $48,000 in Front of Huge Crowd
ROSSBURG, Ohio (September 12, 2015) – Jonathan Davenport won the 45th World 100 and became just the fourth driver to sweep the major dirt late model races at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Davenport, who won the Dirt Late Model Dream and $100,000 in June passed Jared Landers for good on lap 66 and won the $48,000 payout for the World 100 in front of a huge and enthusiastic crowd.
Donnie Moran swept the races in 1996 and 1998, while Billy Moyer did so in 2010.
It was an incredible race for Davenport as he started 18th, but worked his way to the front to win his first World 100.
“How about coming from 18th?” Davenport said. “This thing started circling on that bottom and I knew we were going to have a race car then. I just kept circling that bottom and circling that bottom and when the track cleaned up I knew it was time for me to go to the top. I love this place and I love this car. I had great horsepower as well.”
Jared Landers started second, but took the lead over pole sitter Scott Bloomquist at the start. Landers led for the first 61 laps before Davenport, from Williamston, South Carolina, battled him for the next five laps.
They traded slide jobs throughout most of the racing surface, making contact once when Landers re-passed Davenport, before Davenport cleared him on lap 64. Landers was with him for two more laps before Davenport pulled away.
From there he led the rest of the way and beat young Bobby Pierce, who started fifth.
“I have to thank all you fans,” Davenport said. “You guys are great. This is unbelievable. We have a dream season and now we have a world season.”
Pierce was second, while four-time World 100 winner Bloomquist was third. Landers, from Batesville, Arkansas, was fourth, while Steve Francis, who started 13th, finished fifth.
The race was made possible by the hard work of the Eldora employees who worked for hours on the track after rain canceled Friday night’s racing action.
The racing started at 10:30 am (EDT) on Saturday and they ran the scheduled Friday show before completely reconditioning the track again for the Saturday night show.
The next event at Eldora is the 34th Annual Four Crown Nationals. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds are featured on September 25. The USAC National Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown tours are showcased on Saturday, September 26.
45th Annual World 100
September 12, 2015
DIRTcar UMP Late Models
Heat 1 – (15 Laps)
1. 44M-Chris Madden[3] ; 2. 71C-RJ Conley[1] ; 3. 15F-Steve Francis[4] ; 4. 81JR-Jason Riggs[10] ; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[6] ; 6. 1H-Vic Hill[9] ; 7. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr. [2] ; 8. B5-Brandon Sheppard[5] ; 9. 86R-Rick Rickman[11] ; 10. 18K-Brandon Kinzer[17] ; 11. 240-Doug Drown[7] ; 12. 27-Lauren Longbrake[16] ; 13. 42-Doug Sanders[12] ; 14. 51G-Cameron Guidi[13]
Heat 2 – (15 Laps)
1. 32P-Bobby Pierce[2] ; 2. 75P-Terry Phillips[1] ; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[4] ; 4. 21B-Chris Brown[6] ; 5. 11-Josh Rice[7] ; 6. 157-Mike Marlar[5] ; 7. 49-Brian Ruhlman[8] ; 8. 33-Tim Manville[9] ; 9. R1-Riley Hickman[10] ; 10. 89-Mike Spatola[12] ; 11. 11A-Austin Smith[11] ; 12. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[13] ; 13. 4C-Ernie Cordier[17] ; 14. 7R-Kent Robinson[3]
Heat 3 – (15 Laps)
1. 1P-Earl Pearson Jr.[2] ; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[4] ; 3. 1*-Chub Frank[6] ; 4. 29-Darrell Lanigan[5] ; 5. 99M-Devin Moran[3] ; 6. 20C-Duane Chamberlain[7] ; 7. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[10] ; 8. 45H-Don Hammer[16] ; 9. 15C-Wayne Chinn[14] ; 10. 93-Jay Johnson[8] ; 11. 25L-Steve Lance[13] ; 12. 9N-Ted Nobbe[12] ; 13. 11R-James Rice[11] ; 14. 22F-Chris Ferguson[9] ; 15. 7W-Ricky Weiss[1]
Heat 4 – (15 Laps)
1. 21-Billy Moyer[2] ; 2. 25C-Shane Clanton[4] ; 3. 28M-Jimmy Mars[3] ; 4. 55-Jeep VanWormer[5] ; 5. R5-Chris Simpson[6] ; 6. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr. [7] ; 7. D8-Dustin Linville[1] ; 8. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[10] ; 9. 97-Michael Chilton[8] ; 10. 88-Andrew Reaume[12] ; 11. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[9] ; 12. 17T-Shannon Thornsberry[15] ; 13. 76K-Butch Kruckeberg[13] ; 14. 8A-Rob Anderzack[16] ; 15. 14H-Rodney Hamblin[17]
Heat 5 – (15 Laps)
1. 777-Jared Landers[2] ; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [1] ; 3. 18B-Shannon Babb[3] ; 4. 5-Don O’Neal[5] ; 5. 54W-Matt Westfall[4] ; 6. 14M-Morgan Bagley[7] ; 7. F5-Garrett Alberson[9] ; 8. 8V-Craig Vosbergen[8] ; 9. 32H-Austin Hubbard[10] ; 10. 51M-Mack McCarter[11] ; 11. 5N-Dustin Nobbe[12] ; 12. 9-Jason Croft[14] ; 13. 69-Jonny Huck[13] ; 14. 3c-Charlie LaPlant[17] ; 15. 07-Brian Ledbetter[16] ; 16. 79-Shane Unger[15]
Heat 6 – (15 Laps)
1. 0-Scott Bloomquist[4] ; 2. 3s-Brian Shirley[1] ; 3. 6-Jonathan Davenport[5] ; 4. 25F-Jason Feger[3] ; 5. 31-Nick Latham[6] ; 6. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[8] ; 7. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr. [2] ; 8. 15H-Jon Henry[7] ; 9. 47-Alex Ferree[9] ; 10. 49C-Chad Ruhlman[11] ; 11. 1N-Casey Noonan[17] ; 12. 86B-Neil Baggett[10] ; 13. 28W-Jeff Wolfenbarger[13] ; 14. 68-Dan Shepherd[14] ; 15. 11B-Tommy Bailey[15] ; 16. 96-John Mayes[12] ; 17. 5*-Bryant Dickinson[16]
B-Feature 1 – (20 Laps)
1. 157-Mike Marlar[8] ; 2. 29-Darrell Lanigan[3] ; 3. 21B-Chris Brown[2] ; 4. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr. [10] ; 5. 33-Tim Manville[14] ;
B-Scramble 1 – (5 Laps)
1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[13] ; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4] ; 3. 1H-Vic Hill[7] ; 4. 81JR-Jason Riggs[1] ; 5. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[9] ; 6. 20C-Duane Chamberlain[6] ; 7. 93-Jay Johnson[18] ; 8. 89-Mike Spatola[20] ; 9. 49-Brian Ruhlman[11] ; 10. 15C-Wayne Chinn[15] ; 11. 25L-Steve Lance[21] ; 12. 45H-Don Hammer[12] ; 13. 27-Lauren Longbrake[22] ; 14. 11A-Austin Smith[23] ; 15. 18K-Brandon Kinzer[19] ; 16. 11-Josh Rice[5] ; 17. 9N-Ted Nobbe[24] ; 18. R1-Riley Hickman[17] ; 19. 86R-Rick Rickman[16]
B-Feature 2 – (20 Laps)
1. 5-Don O’Neal[2] ; 2. 55-Jeep VanWormer[1] ; 3. 25F-Jason Feger[3] ; 4. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr. [7] ; 5. R5-Chris Simpson[4] ;
B-Scramble 2 – (5 Laps)
1. 54W-Matt Westfall[5] ; 2. D8-Dustin Linville[10] ; 3. 47-Alex Ferree[18] ; 4. 31-Nick Latham[6] ; 5. F5-Garrett Alberson[11] ; 6. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr. [12] ; 7. 14M-Morgan Bagley[8] ; 8. 49C-Chad Ruhlman[21] ; 9. 15H-Jon Henry[15] ; 10. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[13] ; 11. 32H-Austin Hubbard[17] ; 12. 1N-Casey Noonan[24] ; 13. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[22] ; 14. 51M-Mack McCarter[20] ; 15. 8V-Craig Vosbergen[14] ; 16. 97-Michael Chilton[16] ; 17. 88-Andrew Reaume[19] ; 18. 5N-Dustin Nobbe[23] ; 19. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[9]
World 100 – (100 Laps)
1. 6-Jonathan Davenport[18] ; 2. 32P-Bobby Pierce[5] ; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist[1] ; 4. 777-Jared Landers[2] ; 5. 15F-Steve Francis[13] ; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell[14] ; 7. 44M-Chris Madden[6] ; 8. 25C-Shane Clanton[10] ; 9. 28M-Jimmy Mars[16] ; 10. 157-Mike Marlar[21] ; 11. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr. [28] ; 12. 18B-Shannon Babb[17] ; 13. 1P-Earl Pearson Jr.[4] ; 14. R5-Chris Simpson[30] ; 15. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [11] ; 16. 71C-RJ Conley[7] ; 17. 3s-Brian Shirley[12] ; 18. 25F-Jason Feger[26] ; 19. 29-Darrell Lanigan[23] ; 20. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr. [27] ; 21. 55-Jeep VanWormer[24] ; 22. 21B-Chris Brown[25] ; 23. 99M-Devin Moran[20] ; 24. 1*-Chub Frank[15] ; 25. 33-Tim Manville[29] ; 26. 21-Billy Moyer[3] ; 27. 75P-Terry Phillips[8] ; 28. 20-Jimmy Owens[9] ; 29. 22F-Chris Ferguson[19] ; 30. 5-Don O’Neal[22]
About Eldora Speedway:
Since carved from a cornfield in the natural amphitheater that existed between the Eldora Ballroom and the Wabash River by bandleader Earl Baltes in 1954, Eldora Speedway has grown to be a frontrunner in motorsports growth and stability. Celebrating its 62nd season in 2015, Eldora hosts the biggest events in short-track racing including the 21st annual Dirt Late Model Dream by Ferris Mowers; the 32nd annual Kings Royal Weekend; the third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 1-800-Car-Cash Mud Summer Classic; and the 45th annual World 100. The complete schedule for Eldora’s 62nd consecutive season, including ticket and campsite information, is available at www.EldoraSpeedway.com and can be requested by phone at (937) 338-3815. Fans can get behind-the-scenes access of Eldora Speedway by following @EldoraSpeedway on Twitter, hitting ‘Like’ at www.facebook.com/EldoraSpeedway and on www.youtube.com/EldoraSpeedwayInc. The Eldora Speedway app for the iPhone, iPad and Android is available for free download via iTunes and Google Play.